In the autumn of 9 AD Roman forces occupying Northern Germany were lured into a death trap. Over 20,000 of the world s most feared troops, their families, even their animals, were slaughtered by Iron Age tribes. The bloody massacre defined forever the limits of Roman expansion and left Europe fatefully divided, yet for almost 2,000 years the exact site of this disaster was only guessed at. Then, in 1987, a British soldier made a find that suggested the true whereabouts of the Battle of Teutoburg . Today a grim picture of deception, ambush and ritual slaughter is beginning to emerge.